Microsoft Sentinel Deprecation and USOP Announcement

Auckland, 15/07/2025

DEFEND is excited to announce our 24/7 Managed Security Operations service now supports Microsoft’s Unified Security Operations Platform.

Delivered using Microsoft Sentinel and Defender XDR, our 24/7 Managed Security Operations service is 100% compatible and operational on the Unified Security Operations Platform.

What this means: it doesn’t matter whether you are an existing Microsoft Sentinel and Defender XDR customer or looking to deploy the latest Microsoft security solutions including the Unified Security Operations Platform. DEFEND is fully enabled to deliver cybersecurity threat detection, monitoring and incident response across your Microsoft Defender environment, 3rd party logs and systems.

DEFEND, as a Microsoft verified Managed XDR solution partner since 2023, have always been 100% focussed on ensuring our services evolve and align with the Microsoft security roadmap.

We have been eagerly anticipating the benefits of the Unified Security Operations Platform. These changes will enhance our capability to detect and respond to threats faster, identify advanced multi-stage attacks more accurately and quickly, and consolidate threat alerts from multiple disparate sources into single incidents with full context and visibility across different technology domains.

With Microsoft’s recent announcement of the retirement of Sentinel from the Azure Portal by July 1 2026, DEFEND is now enabling new and existing customers on the Unified Security
Operations Platform. We believe this transition will help to massively improve the management of the Microsoft ecosystem leading to better threat protection and overall cyber resilience.

For our existing DEFEND Managed Services customers,

We have been proactively planning and preparing for these changes for sometime now and are well on the way with enabling the benefits provided by Microsoft’s innovative approach to Unified Security Operations.

These are progressively being communicated and rolled out to you, as part of our ongoing engagement and service improvement initiatives. However, Sentinel remains accessible as part of your existing environment and can continue to be utilised for centralised incident management for any wider cybersecurity operations requirements.

While Sentinel will remain relevant and will still provide integration for key third party feeds, the future of Security Operations will be in the Unified Security Operations Platform and Defender XDR.

This change by Microsoft is a massive step forward towards finally realising the benefits of automation across a connected ecosystem and will enable practical zero-trust outcomes.

For more details or to raise any concerns you may have, please contact your DEFEND Account Manager, your primary Security Operations Engineer or email us at info@defend.co.nz.

Rest assured any upcoming changes will be discussed and communicated to you as our transition planning progresses.